Although legacy (copper) wirelines serve as a principal information transport backbone for a variety of telecommunication networks, other signal transport technologies, particularly those capable of relatively wideband service, including coaxial cable, fiber optic and wireless systems, have undergone rapid development and now serve a diversity of environments and users. A particular advantage of wireless (e.g., radio) service is the fact that it is very flexible and not limited to serving only customers having access to existing or readily installable cable plants.
Moreover, there are many environments, such as, but not limited to portable data terminal equipments (DTEs), where a digital wireless subsystem may be the only practical means of communication. In order to provide digital communication service, the wireless (radio) subsystem must not only be interfaced with an existing digital network's infrastructure, which typically includes legacy wireline links (that may contain one or more repeaters) coupled to an incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC), such as a Bell operating company (RBOC) site, but the digital radio site which provides access to the wireline must also provide a source of electrical power. In many environments, the required power supply is either not readily available, or its cost of installation is prohibitively expensive.